Category: Investment

How do you know if a rental applicant will make a good tenant? It comes down to one factor: respect. Disrespect isn’t simply an attitude. It’s a bad behaviour, one that leads to income loss for landlords. Tenants must respect the landlord, the lease, and the property. There are a number of subtle — and not so subtle — clues that a rental applicant is disrespectful. By asking yourself the right questions, you can learn to spot the signs: How did the applicant treat the previous landlord? A landlord is perplexed because his tenants, a younger couple with good credit, seemed like a perfect fit. Yet, within six weeks of moving in, they neglected maintenance items around the property causing nearly $1,000 in damage, allowed two unauthorized occupants to move in, and secretly increased the number of pets. In hindsight, the landlord remembers that the tenants complained about the previous landlord. A lot. Was the..

Missed rent payments, a goat living in the house, and nine tons of trash — those details are just the highlights of one landlord’s recent bout with nightmare tenants. The worst part of the story: It took six months to evict these renters. In a news interview, the landlord described his property as a bio-hazard, unfit for human habitation. He estimates it will take $30,000 to make repairs, including replacement of urine-soaked floors. The story was so compelling, it prompted a response from Ontario’s Minister of Housing. He says that changes must be made so the eviction process is more fair. Details of these proposed changes are yet to be determined. A spokesman for the Landlord and Tenant Board indicated that the average time for resolution of a dispute is 30 days, according to the report. Many landlords — and those who represent them — say that the process takes much longer, largely due to the ease at which..

A gunshot blast in an otherwise quiet section of Toronto recently summoned tactical officers to break up a rowdy party. Once on the scene, police discovered weapons, crack cocaine, and occupants who gained access via Airbnb. According to a news report, the walls were damaged, along with some of the doors and furniture. The person who had secured the rental through Airbnb was not there. In this case, it was the homeowners who opened up their property to vacation renters, but this story has renewed the controversy over short-term rentals within the city, something Toronto lawmakers have vowed to regulate. One important protection they want to include is making sure that tenants seek their landlords’ consent before hosting visitors in a rental property. Toronto is not alone in studying the impacts of short-term rentals. Vancouver may limit such arrangements through a permitting process, and New York City has regulated the..